The Billy Review

David Cunningham's Evening Learning Humour Symposium

illy-billy — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:03:13 +1000

My interview with David Cunningham went online yesterday, have a read and come to his show! Tonight til Saturday

http://blog.sydneyfringe.com/david-cunninghams-evening-learning-humour-symposium/

Sydney Fringe!

illy-billy — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:27:51 +1000

Aaaallllrighty! I’ve just bought all my Fringe tickets (woop woop!) so here’s what I’ll be going to:

Wednesday 12th

David Cunningham’s Evening Learning Humour Symposium - 7pm

Kraegen Brothers: Poorly Supervised - 8:30pm

Ben & Hing Do Sketches At You for the Better Part of an Hour - 10pm

Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th

I’ll be volunteering at the Australian Dance Festival on Saturday and doing the bachata/street Latin workshop on Sunday as well as going to LDA Ball!

Thursday 20th

100 Years of Lizards - 7pm

Tom Walker Funemployable - 10pm

Friday 21st

James Colley vs His Own Stupid Brain - 7pm

The Bear Pack: Spinning Yarns Since 1846 - 10pm

Wednesday 26th

Bruce SpringSTEEN LIVE IN CONCERT - 7pm

Michael Hing: Occupy White People - 8:30pm

I’m Eating Peanut Butter in the Shower Because I’m Sad and You’re Not the Boss of Me (Alex Lee) - 10pm

Let me know if you’re going to be at any of these! :DD

Sydney Fringe Festival 2012

illy-billy — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:54:06 +1000

It’s almost here! Time to sit down and sort out my timetable of attendance so I can minimise travel time and maximise fun times! :DD I’ll post up what I’m going to and when soon, give me a shout if you’ll be at anything I’m going to! So much excitement!

djfluffyboots: fawkesofalbion: the-midnight-air: deliciouskaek...

illy-billy — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:12:11 +1000

djfluffyboots:

fawkesofalbion:

the-midnight-air:

deliciouskaek:

daintyblackpegasus:

ironicalliteration:

bakinginthebatcave:

superblys:

molovesmusic:

lion king bloopers.
most of them were recorded then later animated.
but this is priceless :D

JAMES EARL JONES IS FLAWLESS OMG

Keep rolling..

“k-keep rolling.”

blblblbllblblblbblbbidon’tknowwhati’mdoing

oh god this is fantastic

Freaking James Earl Jones though.

THE END THOUGH

Rafiki. You had. One job.

When Monsters Inc 2 comes out in November.

illy-billy — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:48:27 +1000

sodamnrelatable:

Little kids waiting in line:

‘Mommy I wanna be the first one to go in’

Me:

‘I’ve waiting 11 god damn years for this, I will be going in first’

via sodamnrelatable

Awwww yeeeeahh!

:D

illy-billy — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:02:50 +1000

The Manshurian Candidate: The Dark Knight Falls Flat? Some thoughts on Christopher Nolan's third film (and the franchise more broadly)

illy-billy — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:16:24 +1000

The Manshurian Candidate: The Dark Knight Falls Flat? Some thoughts on Christopher Nolan's third film (and the franchise more broadly):

anshuw:

[Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE THIRD FILM]

Batman films have had a generally wretched run. From the campy 1960s film to the rubber nipple horror of Batman & Robin, on the whole the films have failed to do justice to this most iconic of storylines (Batman Returns being a very…

Makes an interesting point…I’m not totally up on the Batman storyline in terms of comics so didn’t really mind but was anyone annoyed by this?

Ah this makes me lol

illy-billy — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:09:09 +1000

Ah this makes me lol

fuckyeahthedarkknightrises: A hero can be anyone. Even a man...

illy-billy — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:17:21 +1000

fuckyeahthedarkknightrises:

A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended.

Seven Psychopaths

illy-billy — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:11:24 +1000

Here’s a link to the trailer: http://www.slashfilm.com/seven-psychopaths-trailer/

I am so incredibly excited for this movie oh my goodness look at that cast and the trailer (and the little doggy of course) ohhhh my goodness all the excitement! :DD

Will totally have a review up when I actually get to see it yay!

christophernolans: Trailer for the Dark Knight trilogy in the...

illy-billy — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:26:01 +1000

christophernolans:

Trailer for the Dark Knight trilogy in the style of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Love it!

Some thoughts on The Great Gatsby

illy-billy — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:17:04 +1000

So I recently read The Great Gatsby for the first time, and I’m fully prepared to admit that I only got around to reading it because the movie is coming out soon and I wanted to make sure I’d read the book first, so thanks Baz Luhrmann for getting me off my lazy behind.

Now after reading it, I’m wondering why the hell anyone wants to make a movie of it. Not because of the storyline or anything like that, it’s pretty simple and quite easy to follow. No, my main issue with a film of this book is that half the value of the book, for me at least, is in the amazing way in which it is written, and that’s something that as far as I know is incredibly difficult to transfer to the screen. The language of the book itself is what made it really interesting for me, and also the perspective it is written from, and I feel like these really won’t be evident in a film version.

So yeah, while I am excited for the film because it will look amazing (judging by the trailer) and the casting of Carey Mulligan as Daisy is pretty spot on, I’m really not excited because I feel like it will be a dumbed down version of the book, reducing it from something with literary value to a purely plot- and character-based piece of art (not necessarily a bad thing, just not the same…)

A quick thing on movies...

illy-billy — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:38:00 +1000

I’ve recently seen a couple of movies that were relatively hyped before their release, so I figured I’d say something about them. Please excuse the fact that I didn’t write notes or anything so these are just personal impressions that I got from seeing these once.

Snow White and the Huntsman

I went into this a little bit sceptical, I really wasn’t sure if I’d like it at all but the rest of my family wanted to see it so I tagged along. I ended up, not loving it, but really enjoying it. I honestly thought most of the acting was outstanding, it was easy to see that everyone involved had really gotten into the spirit of it all, and because it was quite dark, not really aimed at a younger audience, they were really able to push the boundaries of being a little creepy. I think they were somewhat limited by script, there wasn’t really any dialogue that stood out or anything like that. Where the film was really strong, apart from great character acting, was the amazing CGI and locations. Most of the animation was really obvious but that didn’t actually ruin the experience for me very much, I thought the whole thing was really visually gorgeous and really enriched the story itself; it was a whole lot easier to suspend imagination when you could see the castle perched on its rocky crag that jutted out into the sea, waves breaking on the rock below etc etc (cliched yes, but it’s a fairytale, they don’t work without cliche!).

Overall I would watch this again, it was a lovely film with some amazing actors and characters (standouts for me: Charlize Theron was just amazing as always, KStew did a really good job with a character who could have been really limiting, the guys who played the dwarves were great). Go see it if you like that kind of CGI-fantasy type movie, don’t see it if you find it hard to suspend your disbelief/don’t like the actors in it/just aren’t into fairytales, because it’s still pretty standard for the genre and doesn’t break many boundaries in that respect.

The Amazing Spiderman

I liked this movie lots, but felt the whole way through that it could have been any old action movie. That being said, there were a whole lot of things that made it really great and any fan of comics/superheroes/action movies/gorgeous actors would be able to find even a little bit of love for this movie. Andrew Garfield is now on my list of awesomest actors of all time because he really really imbued his Peter Parker with the qualities that he needed, especially compared to Tobey Maguire’s version (I know, we shouldn’t compare all the time but they were so recent and a lot of people found Maguire irritating by the end of that franchise). I always thought, watching the Ultimate Spiderman movies, that Peter should be more assertive, that he could still be a geek/nerd but at the same time there would be some confidence there because not only is he really smart, he’s also SPIDERMAN FOR FUCK’S SAKE! Honestly, if you were Spiderman, would you run around hoping people would love you? Hell no, you’d own the joint because you have superpowers and wear lycra and save New York from giant robotic octo-people and have a smokin’ hot girlfriend! /end rant

But seriously, he is just so perfect for the role and carried pretty much the whole movie, and I honestly loved it mostly because of him. Can you tell I’m a fan yet?

Apart from Andy, Emma Stone did a good job as the token girl although her role really did nothing to enhance…well, anything. Just for once, I’d like to see the token girl be a stronger character. I know she’s just meant to be a teenager but she’s also full of scientific knowledge and could have had an actual role to play! One day…

But yeah I just love Andy Garfield. That’s really all I have to say about this movie.

The Dark Knight Rises

It was great. It had an excellent soundtrack by the amazing Hans Zimmer. Cast were incredibly beautiful as usual. Michael Caine makes you feel all squishy inside constantly because Alfred is so goddamn awesome. Gadgets etc are all things that you really really wish you owned (batpod squeeee). There are moments when you (meaning me, because I tend to get emotional when I watch movies) cry, or at least tear up. The villain(s) totally freak you out.

I liked it. I really did. It helped that I saw the opening midnight screening organised by Kings Comics and was therefore surrounded by comics geeks etc. The only problem - and I stress this is my one and only complaint because anything else that sort of niggled at me in this film was overshadowed by the rest of it being pure awesome - was the last sequence. Obviously I’m avoiding spoilers here but I will say that I was fully prepared for the end of the film to be really hard-hitting, emotional and not necessarily particularly positive. I wasn’t prepared for it to end up being essentially a little bit trite. The people I saw the film with liked the end, so maybe I’m just speaking for myself here and everyone else thought it fit in with the rest of the movie. It did tie up some loose ends here and there. But I really did think that it didn’t really have to happen the way it did, it left me with this feeling that they’d sort of done the rest of the movie and then thought ‘ah crap, people are going to be depressed….it’s ok though, here’s a sort-of happy ending for you!’ I really didn’t need the happy ending.

But it was still really awesome! So who cares, because BATMAN!

[Edit: I saw TDKR again with my little sister, and the ending seriously grew on me so I pretty much take back what I said above, it totally makes sense and works quite well in that sort of end-of-an-era way, with some nice tie-ins to the general Batman universe but also some unique touches specifically relating to Nolan’s Batman. So yeah, ignore my first impressions because y’know, it was like 3am in the morning by the time we got to the end of the film and I was probably tired and grumpy :P]

So there you go, some movies that I saw recently! I’ll try to do more of these because otherwise this thing will end up being really empty…but yeah hope you enjoy, recommend me some movies to go and see so I can write about them!

Funemployable: Interview with Tom Walker for the Sydney Fringe Festival 2012

illy-billy — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:03:00 +1000

Em: Ok so the show is called Funemployable. What’s it about?

Tom: It’s about growing up. I’ve realised that I haven’t done much of it since I got out of high school and really have a lot just a lot due, really fast. So it’s kind of supposed to be about growing up and also pugs and whatever I think is funny.

E: Was this brought on by you graduating and having to get into the real world, find a job and that sort of stuff?

T: I graduated uni this year with a bachelor of arts, which is essentially nothing. It’s just a time sink and I got a little piece of paper at the end of it. So now, with my newfound education in English, and I didn’t do anything at uni, I didn’t read a book in full past first year. And I wrote about Ulysses, I wrote about amazing books and I felt incredibly guilty for it, I just didn’t care. Now I need to work out what I should actually do next, as a full functioning adult. I kind of had this realisation that there’s not this switch moment when you’re like “ah I’m an adult now, now I can handle responsibilities!” It’s something you actually do and think about, it sucks.

E: Where do pugs come in to it?

T: Oh pugs just are the best.

E: So they’re just cool, you just like pugs?

T: Yeah, I don’t know, I kind of sat down one day and was like “I wanna write five minutes about pugs” and that’s kind of the set that got me to the state finals of Raw this year, but it was just a stupid thing of…cos I just find them funny. They are horrible, waddling, overbred dogs, who shouldn’t be! Like, you look at a pug and you’re like “that was once a wolf”. At some point down the family tree, one of those leaves was a wolf. And now it’s like, I dunno, a brain dog. It just looks like a foldy little thing, huffing and puffing about, as it goes. Uuuggh.

E: And the pug farm?

T: The pug farm was excellent! For my photo shoot, I emailed this lady, and I was like “Hey I was wondering if you and your number one pug farm in Australia were free anytime soon, I’m a comedian just starting out and I literally just want a lot of pugs.” And she was like ‘I’m not doing anything Monday.” So I went over there, and the sound of twenty pugs all barking at once as we rang the doorbell, was like the first time it hit me, that amount of dogs all concentrated in such a small area.

E: Pretty intense?

T: It was so intense. You think that’s intense, just listen to the sound of twenty of them all running around at once *snuffling noise*like, that many noses struggling to work. That many dogs more excited than they’ve ever been in their lives, it was just wonderful.

E: So, comedy in general…

T: Mm.

E: What brought you into comedy?

T: Uggh comedy *laughs*. I started doing Theatresports in school because through a clerical error it was listed as a winter sport and so let me stop playing rugby, and after that I had some success there and it sort of whet my appetite for positive reinforcement and just feeling good about myself by making people laugh. From there, I went into uni theatresports, I did a revue, I did a bunch of comedy in uni with the guys who would one day become Project 52, and I work with them, directing a sketch show and stuff.

E: Out of the different types of comedy, because you do a lot of sketch, you do your own standup stuff, which do you like more? I know that’s kind of like asking which is your favourite child, but because you are doing a standup show and you do run sketch mostly…

T: No, no, I firmly believe that you should have a favourite child, if you’re a parent, if you’re like in any way honest with yourself, you definitely have a favourite child. I say that as an only child, the competition is…

E: Your parents didn’t have any choice. You know you’re the favourite child.

T: Yeah, well I’m the only child on my dad’s side of the family, so it’s great, I am by default the winner. I’m the Steven Bradbury of genetics. But I dunno, because I do impro, I do sketch, I do standup, they’re the kind of main three things that I do, I think impro is in some ways the most reliable at this point in time. Like I’m at a stage now where I…where dying an impro doesn’t scare me. Because, you know, you’re just doing whatever came off the top of your dome today, and you can easily just blame how you were feeling, or the fact that you had like five coffees and an Eclipse mint and you just shat yourself two minutes in.

E: Right, so you could have an awful day and people will understand that it’s not that you can’t write that or you‘ve not rehearsed, it’s that it was in that moment and it just didn’t go so well.

T: Yeah pretty much.

E: So comedy as therapy…it’s a very Australian type of humour, the self deprecating thing…

T: I think it’s definitely…because to me when you’ve got that hour on stage you have to ask why you have it. So to me it’s like, I want to use that hour on stage to kind of address some issues that are close to me or make people feel a certain way, that invoke that emotional reaction. I think that’s what the best comedy does, it gives you something to think about. If comedy isn’t quite so good, maybe… but you know, comedy can still be good and funny but not do that, but to me comedy is based around issues, and I think the easiest way to do that is look at yourself and then contextualise that in a larger context, if that makes any sense at all.

E: Yeah that does make sense. Well, it’s…you’re aiming for the audience to identify with your individual…what you’re talking about, and find that connection…

T: Yeah, take something you believe, examine why you believe it, and kind of joke it into the audience’s mind, or on the other hand, just detailed descriptions of your penis.

E: Could work, you never know…

T: Like, incredibly detailed, right down to every little bump and lump.

E: Fun times!

T: You got it.

E: Are you very political, with your comedy usually or is it more like a personal…

T: I’m not very political, just because I don’t know anything. I’m not a “Rrrrr I see those clowns in Congress have done it again, what a bunch of clowns.” But I think I’m more an ideas-based guy, in terms of that. Also I’m just a random bullshit, like if something is funny, I hope other people will find it funny. So, again, five minutes on pugs, which led to me kind of bombing, and then being given the kindest attempt at a compliment ever, which was an audience member came up to me and said “You had the best five minutes based solely on pugs that I’ve ever seen in standup” which as a compliment has so many qualifiers that it stops being a compliment about five words before it ends.

E: I hope you just didn’t question how many times that audience member had seen standup on pugs or standup of that length…

T: No. I took the most optimistic route, which is that he’s a prolific watcher of that specific genre of standup comedy…

E: Of course!

T: Yeah, knows what he likes and he just goes to comedy nights around Sydney and the greater Australian area until he sees one…

E: Focused on pugs and he goes “I like you.”

T: Yeeees…you have what I want.

E: Would you say you’re controversial? In terms of the issues that pop up?

T: Uhh…I’ve done edgy comedy before, and I think I’m just a little terrible at it. Like, I want my stage persona to be someone who’s approachable and fun and who you genuinely want to get to know, because that’s the trap! But the…being edgy for me, sometimes …I dunno. I think being edgy is a…can be an easy way out, if that makes sense. And it can also be a hackneyed thing, where I don’t want to copy, say, Sarah Silverman or the other edgy comics too much. I try to keep it cleaner because I know I go filthy at the drop of a hat, if that makes sense. And it’s more challenging and I hope more interesting for an audience.

E: Cool. Is there anything else you want to say about your show? Apart from the obvious things like everyone should come? Pay lots of money?

T: Oh everyone should totally come, everyone should pay like all the money. I should just set up a tip jar and buy an Xbox. Yeah I’m really excited. It’s my first hour show, it’s at the Factory Theatre, which is not a factory, but is a theatre, and I’m being produced by my good friend Michael Hing… Apart from that I guess I want people to come see my show if they want to see something that’s kind of self-consciously fun, because I realised that like fun-employable is the kind of term I gave when I realised that what I was doing at my job was kind of, every time I had an accident, or like…that makes it sound like I pooed myself…every time I did something wrong, I’d try to frame it as like a sitcom misunderstanding. So in my ideal world, I would have a job that I performed poorly and was lazy at, but then people would just be like “Oh that’s Tom!” like it’s just a part of this character and then I slowly realised that it’s not an endearing character quirk, like to have a shitty retail job and just sit on the counter and read books all day.

E: And potentially doesn’t work in the whole real-life scenario…

T: It really doesn’t. Honestly, in my somewhat limited experience, does not. But you know what, that’s what fun-employable is: I can’t get a job but I sure can get some party poppers to make this into a real party.

E: Are you having party poppers, is that going to be a thing?

T: I think they’ve been used quite a bit, in a cheap way. Yeah fun-employable to me is the guy who kind of wants a laugh track over his everyday work and just is like “oh, I forgot to file the report!” “aaaaaahhh” *claps* Doesn’t work, just doesn’t work.

E: Cool. There you go, thanks for the chat!

T: No problem. BYE EMILY!

E: And then just stabbing sounds…

T: Yeah if you could just record some stabbing sounds, that would be excellent. Oh! And I’m also going to talk a lot about Matthew Reilly’s book Hover Car Racer.

E: Ohhh my god I love that book! I kind of want them to make a movie of it but at the same time I don’t because I’m scared they’ll ruin it…

T: How are they going to ruin it?! It’s already a screenplay with a few more words chucked in. It’s the stupidest, most beautiful book ever written, and I’m just gonna talk about it a lot because I think it’s just the greatest thing. So yeah, don’t come if you don’t wanna see Hover Car Racer spoiled, by the way the hover car racer wins, who would’ve thought…

E: You heard it here first.

T: It’s a…it’s a lovely coming of age story, umm but yeah I’m gonna talk a lot about Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly…

E: Sounds exciting!

T: Featuring Jason Chaser, Hover Car Racer. Not my line, not my line. From the blurb and also the end of the book. So fuckin’ amazing… Also love. Always love.

E: Great, I’ll quote you on that one. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me about your show!

T: No problem, thanks for listening to me!

PS Why Hover Car Racer?

It’s the great American novel of Australian hovercar literature. Also it’s the best.

———-

So now y’all can see how horrible my interviewing skills are :P Many thanks to Tom for talking to me about all this. Let me know if you have any feedback for me and thanks for reading! :)

Cry YOURSELF A River - Axis of Awesome 14.7.12

illy-billy — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:56:27 +1000

On Saturday night a couple of friends and I hit up the Factory Theatre in Marrickville to see the Axis of Awesome. It was a preview of the new material they’ll be playing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so I won’t be going into any detail, just to avoid giving anything away. What I will say, is that I liked the set a lot, and I thought there was a lot of material in it that was quite polished, especially when you realise that the show in its current form has only really been worked on for about 6 months.

There was, as usual, a wide range of topics covered, which would pretty much cater to most senses of humour. A few current phenomena were so accurately depicted that I was doubled over in my seat, laughing so much I couldn’t breathe. Other songs didn’t appeal as much to my sense of humour, but were still generally well received. Fans of cultural references definitely won’t be disappointed.

The set felt short at about an hour of material, but found a nice balance between intellectual observations about the world, and plain silliness complete with ridiculous costumes. Overall, an excellent show that I hope the audiences at Edinburgh will appreciate as much as we did on the night.

A realisation...

illy-billy — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:20:43 +1000

So I realised after P52 last night that due to my door duties and associated stuff, I only really see about two-thirds of the show. Unfortunately, that means I can’t really blog about them because most of the time I’ve no idea what’s happened :P

That being said, I’ll still be going to other shows over the next couple of months so I’ll try to blog about all of them if I can (next up is Axis of Awesome on the 14th, so excited!).

To make up for the lack of P52 reviews, I’ll give y’all updates on upcoming shows/performers etc instead :) So, next Wednesday is Storyclub yaaaaaay! I’m awaiting news of the final lineup but it should be rather awesome, so come!

New blog!

illy-billy — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:18:42 +1000

illy-billy:

Sooo I’m going to be moving my reviews and things to a separate blog, just makes it easier to manage and that way you can see them all in one place without the clutter of the rest of my wackiness :P

Here’s the link! http://thebillyreview.tumblr.com/ Chuck me a follow if you’d like to know about all the great things (mostly comedy) happening in Sydney!